Texas Rangers Blog

Sunrise in Surprise: Julio Borbon is out of options – and maybe chances

SURPRISE, Ariz. – It’s supposed to a crisp 46 degrees and clear when the Rangers’ pitchers, catchers and assorted early-reporting position players take the field Wednesday morning for the first “official” workout of spring training. Couldn’t be much more beautiful. Cool enough to wake you up, warm enough in the sunshine to make it feel like spring.

Well, enough poetry of baseball.

Let’s get down to business. A few thoughts as camp opens:

1. Julio Borbon spent the weekend in Catalina Island, then two days at the Boras (as in Scott) Sports Training Institute in Southern California and will be in camp either today or tomorrow for what figures to be his last stand as a Ranger. Borbon is out of minor league options, meaning the team would have to expose the speedy Borbon to waivers before it could send him back to the minor leagues for another year.

Usually guys without options, such as pitcher Michael Kirkman, get every chance in the world to make a team. Clubs are deathly afraid they may lose a late-bloomer to waivers if they don’t keep him. Kirkman, the only other player in camp without options, will almost certainly make the team for just that reason.

Borbon? Not so much.

Barring injury, it would appear Borbon’s only shot to make the team is as a fifth outfielder. And that would seem to be a long shot.

He’s stuck behind the center field duo of Craig Gentry, a far superior defensive player with better instincts, and Leonys Martin, who may be as raw as Borbon, but offers more overall offense and is getting paid $3.2 million this year. Gentry, a right-handed batter, hit .304 last year and proved he could handle the platoon side of the job against lefties. Martin, like Borbon, is a left-handed hitter, but, as if it needs repeating, one with a much higher guaranteed salary. He’s also younger.

As a backup outfielder, the chances aren’t great either. The Rangers could use a right-handed hitting outfield option to perhaps occasionally spell David Murphy and that’s part of Mike Olt’s great outfield experiment. If Nelson Cruz were to get hurt or suspended, the Rangers would prefer a power bat to replace him. Olt is the greater power threat. And as a speed guy? Well, every day the Rangers will have either Martin or Gentry on the bench while the other starts.

Things just don’t seem to add up in Borbon’s favor.

And if the Rangers’ lose him, that will leave them with one remaining player from that giant 2007 first-round/sandwich round draft class that included Blake Beavan, Michael Main, Tommy Hunter and Borbon. That would be RHP Neil Ramirez, who is in camp for the second straight year and last year was sent back to Double-A. That’s not to call the Class of ’07 a bust. Mitch Moreland was an ’07 pick and Beavan and Main were used in trades for Cliff Lee and Bengie Molina. Those guys were instrumental in getting the Rangers to their first World Series.

2. A.J. Pierzynski plays as regularly as any catcher in baseball and takes pride in it. That durability alone is a benefit to any team for which he plays. But on Tuesday, he mentioned another “benefit” of his regiment that I hadn’t considered.

“I think when you play the first two days of a series, when you play the third day, you should have a pretty good idea of how to go after the other guys,” Pierzynski said. “You really get an idea of how to pitch those guys based on the way they are reacting at the moment.”

Think of it as an even more in-depth scouting report. Makes a lot of sense. So I decided to look it up. On the surface, it would seem the White Sox got no real benefit when Pierzynski was behind the plate for the third or fourth game of a series. They were 12-15 in those games, losing the last six as they faded down the stretch. But look a little deeper. In third or fourth games of series, White Sox pitchers had a 3.57 ERA with Pierzynski behind the plate; at all other times with him: 4.20.

3. I wrote about the search for late-inning relievers for this morning’s paper. One factoid worth mentioning that isn’t in that column: The Rangers very possibly will have just one holdover from last year’s seven-man opening day bullpen when they open the 2013 season: Closer Joe Nathan. That is, if Robbie Ross ends up in the starting rotation. How dramatic. Except for this: The 2012 opening day roster also included just one holdover from 2011: Mark Lowe. And in 2011, there were only two guys back from 2010: Darren Oliver and Neftali Feliz.

It kind of sums up GM Jon Daniels’ approach to building bullpens, which is that they can be done on the cheap and on a year-to-year basis. That’s why you shouldn’t expect to see the Rangers spend big money on setup or middle inning men and why they didn’t flinch when RHP Mike Adams went to Philadelphia in free agency and RHP Koji Uehara went to Boston.

4. Jon Daniels said Derek Holland appears to have a vibe about him that suggests the 26-year-old pitcher has something to prove. Holland has already said he plans to tone down some of the wackiness that more marked his 2012 season than pitching excellence.

“As much time and energy as he can spend on baseball, the better he will be,” Daniels said. “But I think that goes for every player.”

One thing worth noting in all the mustache, mullet and Harry Caray talk about Holland is this: He has also been exceptionally warm-hearted to fans and charities during his time with the Rangers. He may be known as a wacky lefty, but the unfortunate part of a more businesslike approach is that Holland may have to say “no” occasionally to some good causes.

5. On the agenda today: A first chance to talk with Yu Darvish this spring. It appears things will be significantly different than a year ago when there were so many Japanese photographers and reporters following him that a bullpen of sorts was created a long a walkway leading to the Rangers’ clubhouse so that they could document his entry to the facility daily. On Tuesday, the bullpen was empty, but then again many Japanese reporters in Arizona went to Cleveland’s camp to witness Daisuke Matsuzaka’s signing with the Indians.

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